Flying

Perhaps you own a business jet and have been thinking about making it available for charter. That’s not always a great idea (see below) but if it makes sense for you, it can offer a rather painless way to recoup some operating costs. Here’s how to proceed.

You’ve probably seen ads and articles that suggest you can fly privately for prices that rival first-class airline fares and even coach prices. Last year, for example, Forbes headlined a story “How to Fly Private Jets at Airline Prices,” while The New York Times ran “Try a Private Jet, at Public Prices.”

In the late 1960s–long before speedsters such as the Hawker Beechcraft Premier I, SyberJet SJ30 and Cessna Citation X were a glimmer in some engineer’s eye–Dassault gave the world a flying bullet: the Falcon 10.

The HondaJet grew out of a research project that began in 1986. The all-composite MH02 featured an above-wing engine mount and a forward-swept wing. It first flew in 1993. With that research in hand, Honda went back to the drawing board and 10 years later the first HondaJet prototype took to the skies.

More than 25,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors are expected at the 65th annual National Business Aviation Association convention, which runs Tuesday, October 28 through Thursday, November 1 in Orlando, Fla.

In 2006, Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) introduced the Premier IA to near-universal acclaim: Here was a composite-fuselage light jet that could be flown single-pilot at speeds up to 450 knots with a near-standup cabin with room for six to seven passengers and a range of nearly 1,500 nautical miles, depending on load.

Production models of Gulfstream’s new, near-supersonic flagship G650–which received FAA certification on September 7–have been rolling off the assembly line and winging their way to completion centers. The manufacturer expects to have the $64.5 million, 7,000-nautical-mile-range bizjet into the hands of customers before the end of this year.

Its futuristic lines seduce, its rate of climb and speed exhilarate and its operating economics spell savings. The Piaggio Avanti vastly outperforms all other turboprops and noses past some light jets. It’s a 400-knot rocket with a near stand-up cabin that has the cross section of a midsize jet. There’s comfortable seating for six passengers aft of the cockpit and the airplane has a seats-full range of 980 nautical miles. Fly with two fewer passengers and range increases to 1,300 nautical miles. Considering that the design of this twin-engine turboprop pusher is 30 years old, this is nothing short of amazing. The fact that barely 200 are flying after all these years is perplexing.

Quote/Unquote

“When you get into the larger aircraft it becomes like a hotel, with dozens of staff supporting the plane based in a galley area down below. You have very comprehensive cooking facilities, and on larger aircraft we have looked at theatres, with spiral staircases and a Steinway grand piano. The limitations for what you can put inside a plane are pretty much the limits of physics, and even money cannot always overcome that. Even so, people are still always trying to push [the limits]. ”